March 16, 2008, Chair Peak north slopes powder

Skinned up into Chair Peak Basin to find much more snow than predicted in the avy forecast.  With the visibility poor we stopped at 5000ft to do some snow analysis.  The bond to the old crust was excellent with only a moderate shear in the upper 10 inches.  With a break in the clouds we set off higher passing two climbers just below the notch to the NW ridge of Chair Peak.  They had just descended from the notch an set off a small slab with about a 10 inch fracture.  Three other groups (only one of skiers) had ascended the notch ahead of us and we gladly followed their boot pack.  With us waiting at the top of the notch for the weather again we did more snow analysis.  Here there was 2-3 feet over the old crust  and this time the bond to the old crust was poor.  We were never able to cut out the back of our column for a compression test with our ski without it shearing at the crust.  When gained an opening in the weather we descended towards snow rather than continue traversing below the north face with its ominous 6 -12ft fracture from earlier in the season.  The first third of the descent was face shots to the beginning of the funnel.  Excellent turns continued down through the funnel with  only two tracks out in front of us.  The final runout to Snow Lake was littered with day old avy debris from the cliffs above.  Lunched at Snow Lake where 2+ feet of new snow lies over the old crust.  The final pitch out to Source Lake was well tracked by the time we arrived but still provided good turns on creamy snow.